Graduate work is considerably more demanding and involves much more independent investigation than undergraduate study.
For this reason, students who have been used to carrying fifteen or eighteen or even more hours per semester in college must
learn to cut down their load in graduate school. The university regards twelve credit hours as the normal desirable full-time
load in a fall or spring semester; a comparable load in a Summer Session would be six hours. Assistant instructors may reduce
their graduate course load according to the amount of time they spend teaching. However, for a regular half-time graduate
teaching assistant six hours is the minimum course load in a fall or spring semester.
KINDS OF GRADUATE COURSES
In addition to the differences between undergraduate and graduate courses, there are also great differences among graduate courses.
In general, the following descriptions hold true in this Department:
700-level courses: Introductory and general courses without prerequisites. Coverage likely to be more intensive, field likely to
be more specialized, than undergraduate courses. Amount of writing and student participation in class work, much of it reflecting
independent study, also likely to be greater. GERM 701 should be taken by incoming students the first time it is available to them.
800-level courses: Similar to 700-level courses, except that prerequisites are normally required.
900-level courses: Coverage likely to be quite limited; amount of writing and student participation in class work, a great deal of it
reflecting independent investigation, likely to be larger than in 700-level courses. This group includes all seminars and the more
specialized philology courses.
Investigation and Conference courses (GERM 753 and GERM 953) are subject to approval by the Graduate Committee. Unless the Investigation
and Conference is part of a Ph.D. specialization, it will be in addition to the minimum six (6) hours required of Graduate Teaching
Assistants and Graduate Research Assistants in a fall or spring semester.
FREQUENCY OF COURSE OFFERINGS
The Department commits itself to course planning in two-year cycles.
TERM PAPERS
As a rule, every graduate student is expected to write at least one term paper each semester, as long as he or she is enrolled as a
regular graduate student before passing the Ph.D. oral comprehensive examination. This may not apply to a certain combination of
introductory courses in which term papers are not expected. While Departmental graduate students are strongly encouraged to cultivate
their research skills by writing term papers at every available opportunity, current Departmental policy stipulates that they not
be required to write more than one term paper per semester. If a student should be faced with a situation in which he or she might
be expected to write more term papers than he or she is able to produce, either the instructor(s) or the student's advisor
should be consulted. A record of the term papers written will be kept by the Department office.
GRADES
Only the grades of A or B are normally taken as indications that a graduate student has done satisfactory work in the courses in
which they are received. Under current Graduate School regulations, A designates above average work; B, average work; C, passing
but below average graduate work; D and F, failing graduate work.
The grade I is used to indicate work of passing quality in a course some part of which is, for good reason, unfinished. It is
given only by advance arrangement between instructor and student. The Department discourages the assiging of the grade I except
in emergency situations. Unfinished work must be made up and a final grade assigned by the following August 15. Instructors of
graduate courses will complete a Departmental card for each I assigned indicating the nature of the work to be completed and the
final grade to be assigned should the work not be completed by the following August 15.
In the Graduate School grading system defined above, at least a B average is required on course work counted toward the master's
degree. Course work counted toward a doctorate, including that for a master's degree if obtained at the University of Kansas,
should average better than a B. For the purpose of computing the graduate average, only work performed at the University of
Kansas which has been accepted for graduate credit is used.
Upon falling below a cumulative graduate grade point average of B, computed in the manner described above, the student is placed on
probation. At the end of the next semester of enrollment, the student's overall graduate average must be raised to B (in which case
the student is returned to regular status), or a Departmental recommendation will be required for the student to continue in graduate study.
If admitted on probation, a student's overall graduate average during the first semester of enrollment must be at least B (in which case
the student is considered to have achieved regular status), or a Departmental recommendation will be required for the student to continue
in graduate study. If admitted as a provisional graduate student, the Department will review the student's performance after the
first semester of graduate study and make an appropriate recommendation.
GRADUATE COURSES OFFERED
GERMAN
700. PRACTICUM FOR GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANTS. (1)
Practical Introduction to basic problems and techniques of teaching German. Required of graduate teaching assistants in
their first semester of teaching in the Department.
701. INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF LITERATURE. (3)
Introduction to methods of literary research and presentation of seminar papers. Exercises in the use of basic guides to the
study of German language and literature, in the documentation of scholarly research, and in the writing of interpretive essays,
based on reading and discussion of selected works from different periods of the Departmental "M.A. Required Reading List."
703. METHODS OF LITERARY CRITICISM. (3)
Differentiation of critical methods. Exercises in textual criticism.
704. GERMAN STYLISTICS. (3)
Stylistic analysis of literary texts; writing in German.
705. GERMAN PHONETICS. (3)
A systematic study of German phonetics.
711. HISTORY OF THE GERMAN LANGUAGE. (3)
A comprehensive introduction to the basic concepts of Germanic philology and various aspects of historical linguistics,
including the nature of language and linguistic change, discoveries of the pioneer philologists of the 19th century
regarding the prehistory of German, and the beginnings of a national German language.
712. THE STRUCTURE OF MODERN STANDARD GERMAN. (3)
A descriptive study of the phonetics/phonology and grammar of contemporary Standard German. Special emphasis on
problems of teaching German to English-speaking students.
716. TOPICS IN GERMAN LITERATURE: _____. (3)
Intensive study of a selected topic in German literature. May be repeated. Offered only in conjunction with GERM 616
when taught by a Max Kade Distinguished Visiting Professor. Graduate students will be assigned additional work.
721. INTRODUCTION TO MIDDLE HIGH GERMAN LITERATURE. (3)
The elements of Middle High German as required for reading medieval texts in the original. Intensive reading and literary
study of at least one text in full.
732. SURVEY of Early-Modern German Literature (Humanism, Baroque, Enlightenment) (3)
734. SURVEY of German Literature in the Age of Goethe (Sturm und Drang, Classicism, Romanticism) (3)
736. SURVEY of Post-Romantic Nineteenth-Century German Literature(Biedermeier, Vormärz, Realism, Naturalism) (3)
738. SURVEY of Twentieth-Century German Literature (1900-present) (3)
751. SPECIAL TOPICS IN CULTURE. (3)
Intensive study of a selected topic in German culture. May be repeated.
753. INVESTIGATION AND CONFERENCE. (1-3)
To be taken only in exceptional cases. Permission of the instructor who will supervise the student's work is required.
754. STUDIES IN HUMANISM, RENAISSANCE, AND REFORMATION LITERATURE. (3)
May be repeated.
755. STUDIES IN BAROQUE LITERATURE. (3)
May be repeated.
756. STUDIES IN ENLIGHTENMENT LITERATURE. (3)
May be repeated.
760. STUDIES ON WRITERS OF THE AGE OF GOETHE. (3)
May be repeated.
762. STUDIES IN ROMANTICISM. (3)
May be repeated.
764. STUDIES IN THE LITERATURE OF THE 19th CENTURY. (3)
May be repeated.
766. STUDIES IN LITERATURE SINCE 1890. (3)
May be repeated.
800. SEMINAR: TEACHING GERMAN AS A SECOND LANGUAGE. (3)
Introduction to selected aspects of second-language acquisition, foreign-language pedagogy, and contrastive contrastive
grammar, with the major concentration on practical guidance in teaching elementary German, in test preparation and grading,
and in the use of equipment.
822. SURVEY OF MEDIEVAL GERMAN LITERATURE. (3)
Text-oriented study of the literature of 750-1500 with selected readings in the original and in translation.Prerequisite: German 721.
823. READINGS IN MIDDLE HIGH GERMAN EPICS. (3)
Reading and literary analysis of one of the following: Nibelungenlied, Erec and Iwein, Tristan, Parzival.
Prerequisite: German 721.
824. READINGS IN MIDDLE HIGH GERMAN LYRICS. (3)
Reading and literary analysis of one of the following: Minnesangs Fr6hling, Walther von der Vogelweide. Prerequisite: German 721.
851. STUDIES IN GERMANIC PHILOLOGY. (3)
Topic to be announced. Emphasis on studies in etymology, semantics, vocabulary, medieval dialects,
linguistic theories. Prerequisites: German 711.
852. SPECIAL TOPICS IN LITERATURE. (3)
Prerequisite: GERM 701.
854. STUDIES IN THE WORKS OF _______________ (3)
In depth study of the work of a major author in German Literature. Prerequisite: GERM 701.
899. MASTER'S THESIS. (1-6).
900. WORKSHOP FOR Ph.D. STUDENTS. (1)
Introduction to job-seeking skills, including use of the computer, grant application and publication skills. To
be taken in the first year of Ph.D. work. Meets the first four weeks of the spring semester.
901. GOTHIC. (3)
Reading of selected Gothic texts. Historical and descriptive study of Gothic phonology and grammar, with an introduction
to comparative Germanic grammar. Prerequisite: German 711.
902. OLD SAXON. (3)
Introduction to the elements of its grammar and discussion of its role in the Germanic family. Selected readings from the
Heliand and discussion of the entire work. Prerequisite: German 711.
903. OLD HIGH GERMAN. (3)
Reading and discussion of selected prose texts and poetic documents; phonological and grammatical features of the Old High
German dialects. Prerequisite: German 711.
951. SEMINAR IN GERMANIC PHILOLOGY. (3)
May be repeated.
952. SEMINAR IN MEDIEVAL GERMAN LITERATURE. (3)
May be repeated.
954. SEMINAR IN HUMANISM, RENAISSANCE, AND REFORMATION LITERATURE. (3)
May be repeated.
955. SEMINAR IN BAROQUE LITERATURE. (3)
May be repeated.
956. SEMINAR IN ENLIGHTENMENT LITERATURE. (3)
May be repeated.
960. SEMINAR ON WRITERS OF THE AGE OF GOETHE. (3)
May be repeated.
962. SEMINAR IN ROMANTICISM. (3)
May be repeated.
964. SEMINAR IN THE LITERATURE OF THE 19TH CENTURY. (3)
May be repeated.
966. SEMINAR IN LITERATURE SINCE 1890. (3)
May be repeated.
967. SEMINAR IN SPECIAL TOPICS. (3)
May be repeated.
953. INVESTIGATION AND CONFERENCE. (3)
To be taken only in exceptional cases. Permission of the instructor who will supervise the student's work is required.
999. DOCTORAL DISSERTATION. (1-10)
SCANDINAVIAN
660. MODERN SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION. (3)
Selected works by various Scandinavian authors from the nineteenth and twentieth century.
753. INVESTIGATION AND CONFERENCE. (1-3)
Independent study and directed reading on special topics. Permission of the instructor is required.
906. OLD NORSE. (3)
Introduction to the grammar and reading of the prose literature of the "saga-age" (1100-1350). Varied selections from the
literature provide the context in which the language is discussed.
907. READINGS IN OLD NORSE LITERATURE. (3)
Intensive discussion of a single longer saga or several shorter works, or a combination of these on a single theme.
Dialectal differences between W. Norse and older Germanic dialects will be noted. Prerequisite: Scandinavian 906.
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